Across Women’s Lives has integrated social media into the fabric of their seventh multimedia series on women and girls around the globe. While AWL reporter Jasmine Garsd and producer Andrea Crossan are live from Uganda this week and next, their reporting will use social media not only for promotion and distribution of their stories, but to gather reactions and conversation from the deeply engaged AWL social community.
The series
The series is called “Across Women’s Lives Investigates: The Road out of Trafficking.” Although considerable attention is given to the millions of women and girls that are forced to sell their bodies to survive, AWL will be focusing on those that get out — and the road after slavery. It will be a week-long series of radio stories, multimedia features, and social-first reporting on the brave journey out of slavery around the world that women make every day.
Pre-promotion
As the AWL team traveled to Uganda, social media editor Isis Madrid sent out pre-produced social media assets in a social media tool kit for colleagues, readers, listeners and fans to share. The toolkit includes:
(1) A letter from AWL editorial director Christina Asquith
(2) A series trailer
(3) Tentative schedule and rundown of radio, web and social reporting
(4) Sharable GIFs
(5) Promotional banners for social media
(6) A handy list of important social accounts to follow
(7) Important links and landing page information
(8) A call-out that allows audiences to contribute to the scope of the reporting and bring things back to the US
Social-first reporting
AWL invites their audience to follow along with the show and team on social media during the first week for daily behind-the-scenes insights into their journalism as they Facebook Live our adventures, share glimpses of reporting in the field on Instagram and crowdsource questions to inform our reporting.
In addition, the team will be creating social media content exclusives as they create and report their stories, including audiograms and promo cards. Those will be available for download here.
Audience engagement
The team has built in opportunities for the audience to contribute to the narrative and tell us about how human trafficking has affected their own communities.
In the launch episode of “AWL Live,” they will discuss and digest the series and talk about how human trafficking happens everywhere — including small town USA. Throughout the next two weeks AWL will be asking their audience to tell us if human trafficking has touched their communities in any way. We’ll talk about the anecdotes that they share with us and connect the dots back to US, discussing domestic trafficking data from Polaris.
To call out to your community, retweet: https://twitter.com/womenslives/status/864575140876648449
How to follow
Hear/watch/read/see these stories and more on The World, pri.org and AWL’s social platforms all next week. Be sure to check out their Insta gram to see live social-first reporting from the team on the ground.
Twitter: Follow for digital exclusives, live-streaming on the ground, multimedia additions to radio stories, series discussion. @womenslives
- Team AWL: Follow for behind the scenes, personal stories, engagement with reporters, the billion dollar Q.
Jasmine Garsd | Multimedia reporter, AWL, Uganda: @JasGarsd
Andrea Crossan | Uganda Producer: @AndreaCrossan
Christina Asquith | Editorial director, AWL: @ChristinaAsquit
Isis Madrid | Social Media editor, AWL: @isismadrid
Facebook: Follow for lively discussion with PRI reporters and audience, Facebook Live. Across Women’s Lives
Instagram: Follow for on the ground portraits of women in Uganda and beyond, with thoughtful context from The World’s reporters. @womenslives
Tumblr: Follow for daily social media and image digest. @acrosswomenslives
